Davis police arrest carjacking fugitive

A carjacking, police pursuit and two-hour search in a cornfield outside Davis ended in the arrest of a fugitive from Arkansas on Monday.

According to Davis police Lt. Glenn Glasgow, the incident began at 1:30 p.m. Monday after a Davis officer noticed a car in a Motel 6 parking lot, located on Chiles Road near Mace Boulevard, had been reported stolen.

At that moment a man nearby saw the officer and fled on foot. The officer began to pursue the man, but as he turned onto Chiles "he was flagged down by citizens reporting a carjacking that just occurred in the Taco Bell lot, which is located just west of the Motel 6," Glasgow said in a news release.

With the officer in pursuit, the carjacker drove onto the Yolo Bypass and then south onto a levee road, where he eluded police, Glasgow said. The newly stolen vehicle was found empty, and as sheriff's deputies and more police arrived, residents began to report a suspicious person near CR-106 and CR-38.

At that point, "The Yolo County Sheriff's Department, Solano County Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol, and the Department of Fish and Game assisted Davis PD in establishing a perimeter around a corn field where the subject was last seen running," Glasgow reported.

After a two-hour search, a CHP helicopter spotted the man lying in the corn field. He was told to come out, but didn't, and a police dog named Cane was used to flush him out.

Police have identified the man as 34-year-old Arkansas resident James Hammons, a fugitive wanted on charges of forgery, fraud, burglary and identity theft. He had a total of six felony warrants for his arrest, Glasgow said.

Glasgow also said another person from Arkansas, 39-year-old Sara Lee Mathews, was arrested Monday evening at the Motel 6 in connection with Hammons.

Hammons is currently being held at Monroe Detention Center and faces additional charges of carjacking, possession of a stolen vehicle, evading and resisting arrest.